Law and the Media: The Future of an Uneasy Relationship

by Gies; Lieve

• ISBN13: 9781904385332
• ISBN10: 1904385338
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2007-08-15
• Publisher: Cavendish Pub Ltd

Summary

This book introduces readers to the study of law, media and popular culture by identifying four specific areas in which there is scope for further development. In its current state, the literature predominantly focuses on crime, neglecting the way in which the media portray less spectacular, more run-of-the-mill legal topics. Secondly, it is primarily fiction that has captured scholars' attention, with remarkably less attention being paid to representations of law (other than crime) in factual media. Thirdly, textual analysis continues to be the preferred method in the study of law and the media, which accounts for the lack of audience research determining how people actually interpret popular images of law. Finally, the literature is dominated by a fear of corrosive media effects, while the potential of the media and popular culture to improve public legal knowledge, facilitate access to justice, and promote legal change remains largely undocumented. The book critically re-examines the assumptions underpinning existing research and suggests a range of alternative foci that are applied in the shape of three original case studies featured in the second part of the book. The book argues that the study of law, media and popular culture should be embedded in the sociology of everyday life. It draws on media and cultural studies for a more production-oriented approach to the study of media representations of law, including the role of audiences in the production of meaning. The book also seeks to understand the often uneasy relationship between law and popular culture from specific socio-legal perspectives, including systems theory, semiotics of law and legal pluralism.

Table of Contents

Beyond media representations of crime

How visible is law in everyday life?

Theorising the relationship between law, media and popular culture

Analysing cultural representations of law: content analysis, reception studies and media production

Women's magazines, cyberspace and DIY law

Tort tales: selling the `no win no fee' formula on daytime television

Let there be light: improving law's visibility

Re-examining `the vanishing line between law and popular culture': why do we need a line anyway?

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